Reprinted from USINGRFID.com |
 | ||
RFID fully justified for tracking laboratory animals Monday January 7, 2008 | |||
Laboratory rodents - genetically engineered to specified genotype formulas to obtain accurate and consistent results from testing - have always been used for testing potential cures for diseases and predicting the effects of new pharmaceuticals on humans. These animals present the perfect justification for RFID tracking, according to Bob Scher, CEO for animal management technology firm Dynasys.
Research facilities have animal care service departments that typically house thousands of these rodents in individual cages. These rodents are found in medical research universities, pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, military testing laboratories and private medical centres. All together this amounts to the housing and care of millions of animals. Highly regulated environments The use of laboratory animals for research is a highly regulated practice and requires accurate tracking and accounting of every animal. A perfect case for the justification of RFID technology. The University of Florida, a prominent medical research facility, is currently tracking thousands of their animal cages by tagging each cage with an RFID tag. This system utilizes UHF EPC Generation 2 tags which are applied to each cage. The tags supplied by Dynasys can be mounted directly onto the metal cage card holders and survive the sterilization temperatures and pressures of the autoclave. A real-world parallel Think of this application as managing a large five-star hotel. The individual animals are checked into the system and assigned a cage and location within the facility. Dynasys employs a customized Dynasys Animal Care Warehouse Management System (DACWMS) software database that performs typical warehouse accounting functions. "Check-In" consists of the induction of the RFID tag ID into the system. The Reader Induction Station containing an Intermec IF4 RFID reader encodes the tag and assigns the destination location. The cage is then "Put-Away" and verified to its assigned location using an Intermec IP4 hand-held portable RFID scanner. Periodic "Cycle Counts" take the census (inventory) of all the cages in each room. A typical room may store hundreds of cages. A "Mobile RFID Cart Reader" containing another Intermec IF4 reader is rolled through the isles and reads hundreds of tags each second providing a complete inventory cycle count. The census is reconciled in real time through a WiFi connection with the main database server. Any cages missing or ones that should have been located in other rooms are noted and corrective action can be taken. As a cage is removed from the inventory its tag is placed into a slot within a Check-Out station. This station, containing another Intermec IF4 RFID reader, reads the tag ID and terminates the animal care processes. An Extech ruggedized printer positioned at the Check Out produces a written receipt as confirmation of the transaction. Potential cost savings The use of RFID for tracking animal cages saves thousand of dollars in labour cost from having to take inventory manually. Besides the actual labour cost savings, most importantly, RFID tagging has virtually eliminated all errors from the accounting of every transaction. The Dynasys Animal Care Warehouse Management System (DACWMS) also provides the additional functions for tracking veterinary health care, breeding activities, purchasing, financial accounting and transgenic genotyping. It is a complete application for the management of an animal research facility. Dynasys firmly believes that RFID tagging of laboratory animal cages will soon become a worldwide standard because it has been shown to be cost effective and provides the most accurate accounting possible with today's technologies.
| |||